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In 1903 TNO railroad was building a line to serve the Clay Belt when in August 1903 silver was discovered at mile 103.
Story goes a blacksmith, Fred Larose, threw a hammer at a fox and struck a vein of silver.
Probably a legend but there were 2 other discoveries at that same time. They were kept quite as long as possible
However word got out and by 1905 there was a tremendous rush .
Cobalt became one of the largest producers of silver in the world.
Peaking at 31 million ounces in 1911 and 450 million total production.
The little hamlet grew from
100 people to over 12000.
Overnight it went from tents to
banks , it's own stock exchange , street cars .telephones theatres opera house etc.
One of the first things built in 1906 was a hockey arena., with a capacity of 3500
And it was a huge entertainment for the miners.
A professional league was established with heated rivalry between Haileybury Comets and the
Cobalt Silver Kings
The great Art Ross was one . Apparently earning $1000 a game. At a time when a miner earned $3 a day
A description of a game in 1909 ;
"in 1909 I was sent to report the final and championship match between the Cobalt and
Haileybury teams.
The utter disregard of money or rather the utter carelessness which with it was thrown around in connection with the Temiskaming League has been marvelous.
As near as can be found out there was over one hundred thousand dollars bet on the last four matches and of that sum only fifteen or seventeen thousand on the last two.
The crowds in the gallery, men and women, and there were hundreds of ladies present, invisible on account of the smoke, yelled and roared to their hearts' content and surging towards the edge, again threatened to break the railing, which they did some weeks before when a half-a dozen had to be sent to the hospital."
They even had a
womens hockey team
Conditions were primitive at the beginning. Accidents, disease, fires.
Safety was not a top priority. Nor was sanitation.
in April 1906 a nurse
Annie Saunders arrived from England . She didn't let anyone know she was a nurse until 7 tons of dynamite exploded a half mile from her house. ( Safety was not a priority)
She tells her story in this article from
Canadian Nurse
Explosions, accidents , typhoid etc. She founded 3 hospitals.
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Fred Larose sold his claims most to Noah and Louis Timmins.
$25,000 was a lot of money back then.
Noah Timmins went on not just to be great grandfather of Margo Timmins
(Cowboy Junkies)
But he also became a Gold King finding gold in Porcupine and what is now the City of Timmins
producing over 70 million ounces gold. Timmins is also home to the deepest base metal mine in the world Kidd Creek over 10,000 feet deep
The Kirkland Gold Camp . ( 45 million ounces)was also discovered as a result of prospectors from Cobalt.
There is a stretch from Timmins, to Kikrland lake to Noranda to Val d'Or ( 300 kilometers) which is just mine after mine. Unbelievably rich. Discovered as a result of Cobalt.
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When people think of Houston they think of oil. Yet even Torontonians don't realise Toronto's impact in the mining world.
Toronto also became the place for mining finance for the world.
45% of the worlds mining finance
comes from Toronto
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The Prospector's and Developers Association of Canada holds an annual convention every March in Toronto.
This year 32.000 attended from 141 countries.
Looking to finance an exploration or develop a mine Toronto is your go to place.
Cobalt now is just a shadow of its former self. A heritage site. Old mine workings etc everywhere.
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